A survey of 11-16 year olds in Britain shows that 60% are not familiar with the term ”Final Solution” – Nazi Germany’s plan to exterminate European Jews. Despite the Holocaust being specified on the Britain’s national curriculum as a subject that students must be taught, only 37 percent knew that the Holocaust claimed the lives of six million Jews, with many drastically underestimating the death toll, reports the London Times.
Do you teach in New York City?
- Lesson planning resources in all subjects
- Communicate and collaborate with other teachers
- Links and local resources to extend student learning
The Disclaimer
The views, conclusions and opinions of authors, contributors and commenters on the Core Knowledge Blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Core Knowledge Foundation.
Recent Comments
- Nancy Flanagan on “Infantilizing Our Kids Into Incompetence”
- Anonymous on “Infantilizing Our Kids Into Incompetence”
- Robert Pondiscio on Required Reading
- FeFe on Required Reading
- Anonymous on Required Reading
- Nancy Flanagan on Required Reading
- Kelsey Parker on Required Reading
- Anonymous on Oh Say Can You C.E.?
- Gina on Required Reading
- Paul Hoss on Required Reading
Recent Posts
- “Infantilizing Our Kids Into Incompetence”
- Required Reading
- Oh Say Can You C.E.?
- Neologism Watch
- Core Knowledge Quiz: Springsteen Study Guide Edition
- Ed Blogger Named to Common Standards Panel
- Congress to Consider Expanding Troops to Teachers Program
- Are You Meeping Kidding Me?
- Winston Churchill, Developing Writer
- Give It Away
Authors
Education Links
- Bridging Differences
- Class Struggle – Jay Mathews
- Common Core
- Curriculum Matters
- D-Ed Reckoning
- Dan Willingham @ Britannica Blog
- Eduwonk.com
- Finding Excellent Teachers
- Flypaper
- GreatSchools Blog
- Jay P. Greene’s Blog
- Joanne Jacobs
- Kitchen Table Math
- Public School Insights
- The Center for Education Reform
- The Charter Blog (National Alliance for Public Charter Schools)
- The Educated Reporter
- The Education Gadfly
- The Quick and the Ed
- This Week in Education
I’m not sure I’m concerned that students didn’t know the particular phrase used to describe Hitler’s plan to exterminate the Jewish people: “Final Solution.” I’m somewhat concerned that more than one third of the students didn’t know the number of Jewish people killed in the Holocaust. But we need to keep in mind that these are 11-16 year olds. The critical knowledge is that the Holocaust perpetrated by Germany killed millions of Jewish (and other) people, and was an atrocity.
The first targets were the “unfit” – the physically handicapped, the mentally retarded and the phychiatric cases. Those people were removed very promptly, since eugenics was a significant part of the whole Aryan idea. Propagation of the fit (healthy Aryans) and removal of the unfit. Gypsies were also targets. The Jews were the largest group, but they weren’t the only one and that, too, should be remembered.
Most kids remember very little of any history at all and that is often scrambled. Modern education traps today’s students in the provincialism of their own time and place by its obsessive anti-narrative,ahistorical, pro-’skills’ emphasis. Why should anyone be surprised that this particular history is not remembered, as enormously appalling as it was.